August update

The big thing going down this summer has been morning, afternoon, and evening sickness. :) I am looking forward to having another little baby in our home, but have to admit that the pregnancy hasn’t been too much fun so far. I'm feeling a little better though, and we will find out on August 25th if it is a boy or a girl. Amazing!

Our little Personal Progress leader in Young Women's challenged all of us leaders to work on getting the new Young Women's medallion. So, I am trying to get my Individual Worth ribbon earned, and the last thing I need to do is write a little bit about how some scriptures I read taught me about God’s love for me. One of the scriptures was Jeremiah 1:5 where God tells Jeremiah that before he formed him in the belly, God knew him and had given him the calling to be a prophet. One of the other scriptures that was related was Abraham 3:22-23 where Abraham sees all of us little intelligences before the world was formed. God tells him that amongst them were some of the noble and great ones, and then tells Abraham that he was chosen before he was born. Out of the scriptures I read, these two in particular touched me. There is such comfort in knowing that we are eternal beings. Even though we don’t remember, we know that God loved us and knew us. There is part of me that feels kind of anxious to remember that time. Wouldn’t that be fun to have the memories again of that sacred teaching and growing time with our Heavenly Father?

I guess that doesn’t have to feel so far away or unattainable. If we seek God out, He will teach us and help us grow in a very personal way in this life too. I would still like to work on letting God into my life in a stronger, more powerful way, but feel like the past six years have smoothed out some of my edges and helped me grow up a little bit? Losing Mom was so hard. It seems to me that going through that intensely difficult experience changed me some. I have also been so grateful for extended family and for the example of the neighbors we live around. I have wanted to be better because you/they are so good to our family.

I feel so grateful to have a testimony of the gospel. I’m grateful for good parents who taught me by example what it meant to serve in the church, to do one’s duty, and to love learning from the scriptures. I’m grateful for the hard things we dealt with growing up. Michael’s passing and being a part of Nathan’s struggle after he was hit by the car, shaped us. I remember as a 15-year-old girl thinking that I needed to do what was right and follow God’s plan because I wanted so much to see Michael and be with him again.

Anyway, there you go. Will that satisfy those of you who have been bugging me about my infrequent blog posts? :)

Scott and Em in Hawaii

Scott and I had such a great time in Hawaii last month! It made January go by fast because we were looking forward to our little vacation. :) Scott found out in mid-December that he had been selected to attend Novell's President's Club in Kauai. He has been just so excited, and I was too, but I was also pretty nervous about leaving the kids for a full week. It turned out just fine though. Cute Katrina came down and spent four 1/2 days here at the house with them, then the other three days they went up to South Weber and had some fun cousin time with the Soderquists and Matthew and Kimberly's kids because they were in Hawaii with us. When we got home, Katrina seemed to still have all of her hair, and Alison and Quin seemed to have survived the inundation okay too. :)

My favorite part of the trip was having so much time just to be with Scott. He is so nice. As the years go on, I am more and more grateful for him. I married someone who is so patient with my quirks, someone who makes me want to be better, someone who lets me be myself, and someone who loves me and makes me feel good. I hope I do the same for him. Anyway, it was so fun to have that time with just the two of us. It is wonderful to be parents, and nice to remember how much we liked being together before we had kids too.

We did some fun things - hiked the Na Pali coast on the north shore of Kauai, explored the shops a little in Hanalei, sat on Shipwreck Beach and watched the surfers and the sunset one night, explored some trails around the resort and found some turtles to watch! We also had a really nice time visiting with Matthew and Kimberly at the Awards Gala and Scott enjoyed learning how to scuba dive in one of the resort's pools with them too. We saw Spouting Horn near Poipu Beach, found a "Puka Dog" stand in a shopping village - it was the yummiest hot dog ever! They grilled a polish dog, put it in a big, fresh bun, then covered it in Hawaiian mustard and mango relish. Yummy. Scott and I were so grown up during our trip! Neither one of us really enjoy seafood, but we tried all sorts of loster, crab, mahi mahi, and fresh shrimp off of a truck near the Polynesian Cultural Center. :)

The group we went there with was so diverse! There were people from India, Boston, San Diego, Provo, Korea, Japan, Germany, South Africa, Denmark, Italy, and more. Anyway, the trip was quite a treat. Novell served us a beautiful breakfast every morning, had a couple of nights where they served sandwiches and appetizers, and had a big, wonderful seafood dinner for the Award Gala. They also left us a gift every night in our hotel room. It ranged from Hawaiian snacks one night to an Amazon Kindle our last night.

Having the time with Scott was my favorite thing, and my next favorite was getting a taste of what the church is like in Hawaii. A bunch of the couples from Novell went to a church meeting in the Kalaheo Ward about twenty minutes away from the resort. What a nice experience. One of the Polynesian sister in the ward started making leis out of yarn for visitors in Relief Society years ago, and they have just kept it up. Kimberly and I talked with one of the counselors after the meeting and she said they usually have five visitors every week in Relief Society! There were close to twenty the Sunday we were there - probably because it was Valentine's Day and a lot of people were celebrating in Hawaii? The Polynesian people just seem relaxed and happy.

Our last two days, Scott and I flew over to Oahu and visited the Polynesian Cultural Center run by the church, BYU Hawaii, and the Laie temple for a few minutes. We learned that the Laie temple was built in 1919! It was the first one completed after the Salt Lake Temple because they had such a nice group of converts in the area, the church wanted the Polynesian people to have access to a temple. The siter missionaries we visited with told us that the Laie area is 90% LDS. When the early Polynesian church members were converted, church leaders encouraged them to gather in that area. The church bought the land the PCC, the temple, and the university is on today. As they recognized a need for the people to be educated, they started the school there and President McKay dedicated it as BYU Hawaii while he was the prophet. A lot of the performers in the PCC are on talent scholarships so perform there at the center to help pay for schooling.

Anyway, it was a really nice trip. We might even go back someday. :)

Thanksgiving Point

On the 14th, we drove through the lights at Thanksgiving Point. We learned that next year we will avoid Monday night at all costs because we waited in line for 45 minutes before we even got into the little show! It seems that everyone in Utah County had the same idea about how to spend FHE that night.

It was actually a little chilly! After we got through the lights, Scott suggested that we take a look at the live reindeer they had penned up by the gift shops. Those of use who were not so well-equipped in winter gear were really happy to take a quick look at the reindeer ("Oh, yes, there they are.") then get inside and take pictures. :)

The perfect pumpkin

When it comes to picking out our Halloween pumpkins, we have a little bit of a tradition going. For most of the past five years, we have driven out to the Red Barn in Santaquin, gone on a hayride out to their pumpkin patch, helped the little kids pick out pumpkins, then waited and waited and waited and waited some more :) for the older kids to find just the right one. This year it even started to get dark on us while we were waiting for them to find the perfect pumpkins! I'm just glad we made it out of there - the apple cider doughnuts at the gift shop were calling my name. :)

Garrett enjoys his food

Something I have never quite understood is why little people think playing in their food is so much fun. :) You can talk all you want about learning about the world they live in by experimenting with different textures, etc, but I still think it is gross. As long as we can keep Garrett at the table or counter, I don't mind too much, and I guess when he plays with his food it makes for funny pictures. We had some chips and salsa a few Saturdays ago, and Garrett sure enjoyed learning about the world of salsa!

Recent Scouting awards

Ethan earned his Wolf and Justin earned his Arrow of Light at our last Pack Meeting! They both just smiled the whole night. It makes the teeth-pulling I have to do to help them pass off requirements pretty much worth it. :)

Our Cubmaster is so great. She has worked hard to make fun traditions for the boys so that they really look forward to earning their big ranks. The Bobcats dig through bobcat brains (cooked spaghetti) to find a bobcat eyeball (marble), the Wolves rub painted noses with their parents, and she has come up with a more serious, special evening for when boys earn their Arrow of Light award. Her enthusiasm makes me want to do my calling better!

Deep thoughts by Emilie :)

I have been thinking a lot lately about relationships. I am probably a little naïve and don’t get out socially a lot, but I have been so impressed with this neighborhood since we have lived here. Out of all the places we have lived, this is the place where I have heard the least amount of gossip and backbiting. I hope that part of it might be me. I think I have learned a few things over the past few years. I have learned that it feels really, really good to think the best of others. I remember a conversation I had a few years ago where I was worried about what some people might possibly be thinking or saying about me. The person I was talking to gave me some great advice: just go into that situation imagining the best. Assume that they are saying and thinking nice things.

There is power in thinking the best of others. None of us always function at 100%, so I would hope that as I forgive and accept others’ actions, others would also give me the benefit of the doubt. I have heard a friend say a few times that a person was doing their best. That phrase is liberating. If we assume that others are giving the best effort that they can give, then we don’t harbor negative feelings and we learn to love people the way that God loves us. Wow! With all my weaknesses, I am so grateful for Heavenly Father and Christ’s unconditional love for me. I owe it to them to love others in that very same way. That is why I am here. Yes, I needed a physical body, but really, I am here to learn to love others.

There were a couple of times over the summer where I listened to some neighborhood gossip. I didn’t bring it on, but I was so frustrated that I hadn’t defended the person being talked about. I came home and decided that I needed to come up with something to say when that situation arises again. I am so grateful to realize that I want to feel at peace about others. We have such a merciful Father who helps us recognize things we need to work on. There are times when I need to vent about a frustration I have with someone, but it seems like there is a way you can do that without it being gossip. Maybe I only vent to one trusted person, and maybe I recognize that even though I am frustrated, the only person I can change is myself? Anyway, something to think about.

School musings (some sub-standard titles today - sorry!)

School started a little over three weeks ago. It finally feels like we are getting into a routine, and it is nice to have some one-on-one time with Adam and Garrett. I have had some mixed feelings about sending the kids back to school though. I enjoy having them around during the day. I like knowing who they are associating with, and I like knowing what they are doing and saying. You send them off to school and all of a sudden you have no idea what they are doing 6 ½ hours of the day! They are pretty cute though to answer my questions about who they play with at recess, what they like about their teachers, which specialist they visited during the day (computers, art, music, library, etc.).

A big huge positive about the school year is the kids’ teachers. When we went to register the kids in July, I was so excited to see that all of them had received the teachers I requested! In our six years here at Canyon, this is the first time that has happened. A friend of mine suggested that when I write down the reason for the request, I really take some time and come up with some good reasons, so I did, and then we also have a new principal this year and he seems to want parents to be happy. So, the happy thing is that I can enjoy the kids while they are home, and I know that they all have kind, nurturing teachers to hang out with during the day! Hooray!

It isn’t my first instinct to request teachers. Part of me asks myself what makes our kids so much more important than everyone else’s kids. But guess what! When I haven’t requested teachers for the kids, I feel like I have been burned because everyone else requests the experienced, kind teachers. One of the kids has had a first year teacher who had absolutely no control over the classroom, and the next year he had an intern who was so grumpy with them. Anyway, I will never again leave their elementary school teachers to chance.

I have heard my neighbor say a couple of times that it is nice if the kids learn something during the year, but she just wants a teacher who will be kind to her children. I agree. I would much rather have my kids in an environment where they felt accepted and loved than have them in an environment where they were learning their times tables but felt unappreciated and picked on.

Salt Lake outing

Here are some pictures of a Saturday in July that we spent up in Salt Lake. We visited Temple Square, went through the Oquirrh Mountain Temple open house, and got to meet our new niece, Morgyn! Morgyn is Scott's youngest sister's newest baby, and she was very cute!

I have enjoyed so much the opportunity to go to the Draper and Oquirrh Mountain temple open houses. It makes me so happy to give the kids the chance to be within those holy walls, and it is exciting to help them feel the importance of going to the temple. I love having little children around, but it is so satisfying to have Justin and Ethan growing up into such good boys. They seem genuinely excited when we talk about how soon they would be able to go to the temple to do baptisms. What a blessing the temples are to parents! It gives us something to help our kids aim for. I am just so grateful for the gospel and the added perspective it gives me in my own life. Being in the temple, in particular, always helps me remember what is eternally important. Little worldly concerns just kind of float away . . . :)

Carac - ouch!

Talk about red! I am smiling because I finished the Carac treatment the dermatologist told me to do. Because of the basal cell carcinoma I had removed from the side of my nose back in April, he prescribed this Carac cream for me to put on my face for 28 days in order to get rid of pre-cancerous cells - which he saw when he did the biopsy of the tissue samples he removed back in April. Wow – it has been unnerving. Scott did this same treatment back in March and was so stoic about it, that I had no idea how uncomfortable it was. I stopped doing the medicine three days ago, and my face is still beet red, the skin under my eyes, over my lip, and next to my eyelids is dry and tawt, and I still have skin sloughing off. Very disturbing. I thought I was done with random bleeding spots, but just this morning awakened to a bloody scab under my eye again. Scott’s face was back to normal and even looked better just three or four days after he had finished doing the cream. I am guessing that my skin was more damaged, or just more sensitive, and that my face will always be red. Just kidding. I know I will heal someday. I wish the process would just hurry up a little bit so that people will stop asking me what is wrong with my face!

Let me introduce you to my Timex:

It is not just any watch. It is a Timex Ironman watch. It probably swims, bikes, and runs all by itself :). Although I do not know all of its capabilities, I do know that it has a great little timer. When the kids go to a friend's house to play, I set the timer, put the watch on their wrist, tell them to take good care of my favorite possession, and to come home when the timer beeps. I use it when I bake because our oven timer beeps for five seconds then stops, allowing me to forget about the thing inside the oven. (That should be a requirement for all oven timers to beep until someone actually opens the oven door, don't you think?)

My Ironman also helps me to clean. I set my timer for five minutes, concentrate on one room, and just straighten, dust, or clean as fast as I can. :) I find this method is especially effective when the house is a MESS on Monday morning. Just this very Monday, the task of cleaning the house seemed overwhelming, but when I set my timer and started in on our master bathroom, cleaning the house became a game! Wow. An hour after I started, the upstairs looked grand. I have to admit though that the kitchen takes longer than five minutes. Unloading the dishwasher, loading the dishwasher, straightening and cleaning the table, and straightening and cleaning the countertops get their own five-minutes.

I thought it was such an original and creative idea, but when I mentioned it to a friend the other day, she asked me if I had gotten the idea from the fly lady (I have never looked at her website, but friends have told me that she has ideas for cleaning efficiently), and then when I told Angela and Alison about my cleaning game the other day, Alison smiled and said that she does the same thing. Hmmm. I wonder if I got the idea from her?

Anyway, I love my watch. The timing possibilities are endless . . .

2006 - Done!

I had a goal to finish up the 2006 scrapbooks this week, so as soon as Scott and I got the kids in bed last night, I headed to my scrapbooking table and finished up October for everyone. It was around midnight, and I actually felt pretty tired, but I couldn't stop! November and December were small enough that I just finished it all up and got in bed at 2:30 this morning. :) I used my last Hermafix tabs on my last page, ran out of sheet protectors and had to scrounge 6 from various places around the house, and my paper collection is feeling pretty sorry, but I am done with the blessed year! What a great feeling! On to 2007!

An answered prayer

I am the type of person who likes to have one, maybe two, responsibilities during the day, then I like to plan my agenda and get my own projects done. Last week was not one of those weeks! We were finishing up the spring soccer season, Lindsey and Ethan are starting into their T-ball/baseball seasons, Ethan is starting track, and then we had all the normal piano lessons, pack meeting, Young Women's, and Scott's bishopric-helping.

Well, Thursday morning came along. I had a list of errands that I wanted to get done in the morning before Lindsey got home from Kindergarten. By the time I had Adam, Garrett and myself ready, we ran out the door - I could already tell the time was going be really close! We hurried to the post office, jetted over to the credit union, and then raced through Macey's to get some groceries. I wasn't sure if we would have time, but I realized that Justin had left for the Hershey Track Meet that morning without a drink, so we bought him a cold Gatorade at Macey's and just tried to hurry, hurry through the store so that we could take it to him. (I thought I might feel bad if he keeled over from heat exhaustion at the high school track. :) )

The three of us left Macey's with just twenty minutes before Lindsey would be home. As we neared the high school, I saw cars and people everywhere! I think every fourth grader in the Spanish Fork area was there, along with a lot of their parents. In my head I was giving up much hope of being able to find him in the five minutes we had to look for him, but I pulled into the church parking lot north of the school's large property anyway, grabbed the stroller out of the trunk, and plopped Garrett inside and Adam up on top! It was already 11:00 and knowing that I could not find Justin on my own, I said a prayer asking Heavenly Father to help us find him before 11:04. I wanted Justin to be hydrated and know that I loved him, and I also wanted to be home before Lindsey. (I have found from experience that children are a little grumpy when their parents are late. :) )

As we walked briskly over to the track, I kept my eyes open for kids from Justin's elementary. We passed a hundred or so kids doing the long jump, but I recognized some moms and knew they were from a different elementary. We reached the track where there were even more fourth graders milling around, but I saw a father in our ward helping with a race. Just as I thought I might ask him if he had seen Justin, I looked over the racers he was supervising on the track only to see my cute little Justin mosying along with a friend towards me. Victory! I was so happy to see him, and I don't think I will ever forget the happy, surprised look he gave me! I gave him his Gatorade, patted his cheeks which had never been cuter, wished him good luck, then headed back to the van. I looked down at my watch just to see how we were doing on time, and almost started to cry when I saw that it was 11:04.

It was just such a little thing, but I am so grateful for the help that Heavenly Father gave Justin, Lindsey, and me. Justin got his drink and knew that I was thinking about him, and Lindsey got to come home to a house that was unlocked. :) Maybe even more important than those things though, is that when Lindsey, Justin and Ethan got home from school that day I got to tell them that story. I got to tell them that Heavenly Father loves us and answers our prayers.

A facial update. :)

I am feeling better about my face now. Thanks for the advice and concern, everyone. :) Also, after the nurse took out my stitches today, she loaded us up with all sorts of SPF 70 sunscreen. I didn't know they even made it that powerful! We have been working really hard at keeping wide-brimmed hats on the kids outside, and are being more conscientious about sunscreen with them too. As we were in the office today I noticed a poster with a cute, cute girl who was wearing a darling sailor's hat. She was so sporty and cute it made me think that I need one too. :)

A really long journey through the last couple of days - sorry! :)

About a year ago, Alison saw something on my face that she thought looked like skin cancer. She suggested at the time that I see a dermatologist, so a few months later, I asked our pediatrician neighbor for a recommendation, then it took two or three months to actually get into this doctor. When Dr. Bezzant saw the spot on my face, he immediately said, “BCC” which stands for basal cell carcinoma (a type of skin cancer that is treatable if they catch it early because they can just remove the cancerous cells), and then shaved it off so they could do a biopsy. It didn’t surprise me too much when his office called and told me that the biopsy results did indeed show that it was a BCC. We scheduled a time two months later for him to remove the growth.

It took him about ten seconds to take the biopsy, so I wasn’t prepared for what the surgery entailed. When Scott, AND Adam, AND Garrett, and I got to the office Monday morning, I asked how long they thought it would take, and was surprised to hear “we have one hour scheduled”. What? We would not have brought so many children without attention spans along if we had known that it would take so long! My nervousness level jumped! I was a little nervous already because the spot was in a visible place on the side of my nose. I was worried about scarring from the procedure, but knew that it was more important to just get the thing off of me. Even knowing that, I was more taken aback when the doctor started drawing on my face with a marker to show me exactly where he was going to cut. Eeek! He was really going to cut into me, and in a bigger way than I had imagined!

Hoping to calm myself a little, I said a prayer, and then just tried to suck it up. :) That helped me feel better – I visited with Dr. Bezzant during the surgery and then while he was filling out a prescription for an antibiotic and Oxycodone (What? I am going to need Oxycodone?), I asked him to take a look at a funny growth that I have on my knee. He gave me a shot in the knee, took a sample for biopsy, then I asked him what he thought it could be. Once again, I was caught a little off guard when he said he thought it could be either a wart, psoriasis, or squamous cell carcinoma. What?!

As he finished his paperwork, I was just sitting silently on the operating chair – thinking about a lifetime of worrying about all of the crazy things that could go wrong with my body, wondering if he really knew that he had gotten all of the cancer out, and hoping that my scar wouldn’t overwhelm my face. He asked me a couple of times if I was okay – did I look like I was in pain or in shock? I told him that I was fine - just feeling sober.

Anyway, this has been an interesting ride. I felt emotional Monday and yesterday because the scar is just over inch long, and it goes from under my eyeball on a slant down to the middle of my nose. I feel an affinity to Frankenstein. The stitches are in until next Monday, so it looks kind of scary with the black thread going through the scar, and I have a puffy, colorful eye. Luckily, I am supposed to keep a topical antiobiotic on it, along with a band-aid, so most of the yucky stuff is hidden. My vanity is still suffering some though. Sigh. I hope it isn’t too visible when all is said and done, but things could definitely be worse. I don’t have stomach cancer or congenital heart disease. How is that for putting things into perspective in a quick way?

I feel better today. As it turns out, there are still some pre-cancerous cells there, so after the scar heals, Dr. Bezzant wants me to apply some cream to the area for a period of time, and the thing on my knee is just a plantar wart. Praise be! It sounds a little silly – I will admit, even to me – but I feel like this has been a brush with mortality. I know that I am fine, but we are just not indomitable, are we? Sigh.

(By the way, I didn’t need the Oxycodone. It hurt, but not anything like a c-section!) :)